Reeds take a battering

Reeds Weybridge 10 Battersea Ironsides 28 REEDS’former players enjoyed a splendid lunch last Saturday. How they would have liked their present-day heroes to have rounded off the afternoon with a much-needed win.

They didn’t achieve that and skipper Christian Gore knows that he is in for a long season. In truth, there wasn’t that much between the sides, but in tight league matches a slight advantage is all you need.

That advantage was spread thinly but was crucial. The Ironsides won all their own lineout ball fairly comfortably. Their backs ran straight and hard.

Reeds chipped them down well enough but ruck after ruck, with the ball controlled by the visitors, unlocked the Weybridge defence.

Ironsides had gone into an early lead with a penalty, but it was short-lived. Reeds forwards bashed up the midfield and Gelpie was released on the wing to go on and score.

That prompted Ironsides into their best spell of the match. They pinned down Reeds in their own 22, and then scored score just on the stroke of half-time.

Clearly the early part of the second half was going to be the deciding time for the game, and it went Ironsides way, Reeds leaked a couple of pretty soft tries. That hit them hard as they had worked so well up to that point containing the visitors.

They did come back when Eoin Tan , who had such a good game, dummied his way over the line.

However, Reeds really needed rather more possession in the back division when the side was going forward.

Late on, Ironsides put the game beyond doubt with the last try of the game.